Life's a whirl to me lately; I can't keep up sometimes, it seems. <-- my excuse for not updating the blog sooner. January was VERY fun. No. 2 came to visit us here in Texas and went to the gym with us. No. 1 went with us, as well, and has continued to go with us even after No. 2 flew home. We're really enjoying our gym time; THAT's for sure! Em and I also got married on the 17th: We HAD more pictures of the wedding, but they so closely resembled Denzel/Angelina that we figured we'd bore the net audience if we continued to post them. No. 2 left for LV the day after our wedding and we left for LV just a few days afterward (none of this was pre-planned), and she bought us tickets to see Le Reve . She couldn't have chosen a better gift for us, as Em and I BOTH loved the show. Thank you, No. 2! She also did a good job feeding us at the Wynn after the show, but I don't want to make too much of her doing that because my other two children might think that I'm only pleased when my kids spend lots of money on me and (while that might be true), I don't want the other two kids to know (if you get my drift!). (big grin) Back at the Texas ranch(cough!), we found ourselves in February. 68 degrees this past week outside while some of y'all in Illinois had schools close due to snow! Newly incorporated into our routine is a once/month mid-day outing to a local activity via a cheap, interesting place to eat lunch. February's offering is Scotty's Deluxe Diner in Haltom City, TX. It's a one $ place that has breakfast all day long, endless cups of coffee, and friendly servers. We each got blue-plate specials for $4.99 minus 10% just for being old. and when it was almost time to leave, I saw Denzel(in a silly hat): We stopped at the diner on our way to an exhibit of 150 photos from "This Great Nation Will Endure" Photographs of the Great Depression. The collection in its entirety is 80,000, but we saw 150 of the most popular, most intense at Tarrant County College, Northeast Campus. We spent about 3 hours there viewing these 150 photos. I can't imagine how long we might spend viewing the 80,000 if they were ever made available for viewing. We thought it worthwhile, for sure. If any of you are in the area, I think you'd think it worthwhile, as well, or you can view them online: Photos. Are y'all havin' fun?

Happy New Year 2007! This is an open thread, so talk about whatever you want.

I'm into new for this thread. No. 1 has a new boyfriend, Daniel, who sent her flowers to arrive before she did on her trip to Illinois for Christmas. I ran into the new owner of my folks' house in Chicago while I was in Illinois. Seemed the guy I'd assumed was a city worker noticed me taking pictures of his house, saying, "I'm over here if you're looking for me!" I spun around and took his picture with the neighbor he was helping bag leaves. Once he learned who I was, he told me that he'd been waiting YEARS for me to return and see what they'd done to the place. He mentioned how he'd not wanted to buy it because it needed so much work, but how his wife loved it. He'd thought they'd stay there 4 or 5 years max, but 16 years later, his wife is still in love with the place. THAT's house-love. He gave me the tour of the inside, as well. Remember the frontroom where you played each morning, children? Kitchen: Back porch: My folks' bedroom became an office at the front of the house upstairs: In other news closer to home, Em and I are taking advantage of how our new health club is smack-dab between Forth Worth and Dallas near the road that connects the two. New on our agenda: outings to places of interest (including lunch at places of interest) at least once/month. In December, 2006 we saw the Hatshepsut exhibit after lunch at The Montgomery Cafe: When you come down, No. 2, we're gonna take you to the club followed by lunch at The Angry Dog, followed by a visit to the Women's Museum in Dallas. We don't know if we'll like any of that, but that's the whole point of doing new stuff in a new year, right? What's new with y'all?

Happy Birthday, Th3yungin!!!!

24 years. Have you noticed yet that time flies whether you're having fun or not? Hope your day is a great one. Love, Mom

Thanksgiving/Christmas Illinois 2006 photo op.

First trip to No. 2's apartment this past week revealed that it has SEVEN doors. Once inside, I felt like I was in one of those Science Fiction movies where the escape from the maze is through THIS door...or maybe THAT door. Pick the wrong door and you go down the rabbit-hole. I had a good time there; despite the small size, the place has great warmth and character (like its residents). We had brunch and dinner there on Thanksgiving Day. Silly-O (pictured) brought deviled eggs, which were scrum! Saturday after Thanksgiving, No. 2 and I checked out some downtown Chicago activities like Christkindlmarket (a German Christmas tradition). She bought a cashmere scarf from this particular vendor. We also checked out the ice-skating in Millenium Park. I was VERY glad we hadn't planned on engaging in that particular activity. Inbetween visits with No. 2 et al, I spent some quality time with my oldest friends in the Chicago area. Always great to see them! Got a call from the mysterious unidentified uncle while there; how great is THAT? He's doin' fine. Here, we'd taken a little trip to see B'Hai temple. Last (final) stop was back to see the tree at No. 2's. As they say, "From our house(s) to yours!"

Wow...it's been WEEKS since a new thread. Busy time of year. What are your Thanksgiving Plans? Open thread.

I can't even remember all the things we've done since the Halloween thread. Perhaps the most disappointing thing that DIDN'T get done was the holiday cookie baking. That will need to wait until I get back from Chicago. I'll be spending Thanksgiving week in Illinois with No. 2, Thyungin, and my oldest friends, Bob and Judy. I'd had such high hopes of showing up on doorsteps bearing cookies; where does the time go? I just finished creating a document for Em and No. 1 regarding how to find stuff to eat for a week while I'm gone, along with sample menus. I've known about this trip for a while, so purchased a few more "easy to prepare" items, so it was just to point them to where things are. Kroger sent Em a coupon for a free turkey, so they need to eat some of the frozen "easy to prepare" stuff that I've moved to the kitchen freezer to make room for the stuff they need to move from the garage freezer to free up space for a turkey in the garage freezer. They'll both spend Thanksgiving Day at the homes of family/friends here in Texas. I'll be spending Thanksgiving Day at the apartment of No. 2 (in a very intimate setting). Other than that, how about that election? Wowser! Happy Days Are Here Again in MY camp while those in other camps hyperventilate into paper bags. I'm getting a few tomatoes in the backyard, and just picked several collard leaves. MOST exciting is that the elephant garlic has decided it would like to stay and make nice. You might/or not recall how the elephant garlic had died off and how I'd separated the cloves just in case it decided to grow again. Did I mention how Em was working again at the Race Track? It's a Wednesday thru Saturday gig that'll end December 3. The schedule plays havoc with meal planning because he needs to leave by 4:15 and doesn't get home until late (between 9:30 and 11pm). So, I make breakfast, brunch, early supper and late supper. We're waiting until after the Race Track gig is done to start at the city health club just because it's a drive beyond the Race Track north to get there and our cars aren't running so well lately to take on more than required trips. What else? I dunno. We did major grocery shopping this week just because some sales only happen once/year at this time. I've inventoried it all, but still need to update my price file. That's the file I keep which lets me know whether or not a sale price is actually a sale price (and keeps a history of prices on individual items). Happy Thanksgiving, Y'all! I may even call that unidentified uncle of mine who lives in Illinois.

Happy Halloween!!!

Only a few days left until the "spookiest" night of the year. Looking to hear what kooky costumes anyone is coming up with. I'm going to be a devil. Pretty typical, but wanted to find a costume that I would be comfortable while working at the bar. We're having a raffle, a costume contest, and a few bands. Should be a really good night at the bar. We've had some fun around the apartment with the costumes. For some reason my roommate has an obsession with buying wigs. We've had some fun trying them on and wearing them around the apartment. I must say I could not have found a more fun roommate. We're both weird and we never seem to cross the line with each other. We both get it. Anyways, not too much to report here except that my car recently decided to stop starting. I still have to get that fixed, but since it is right before the weekend I have so much work lately that the car may have to sit until Tuesday. Luckily, my dad seems to be a collector of cars and usually has one to spare. I'm also going to see if I can get a pic of my latest pumpkin carving and send it to Mom. Hopefully she'll be able to put it up on the blog. Hope you all have a Happy and Ever-so Spooky Halloween!!!!

Ballooning in Albuquerque.

We arrived home on Friday night from our trip to Albuquerque. The drive was L O N G ...both going and coming back. We agreed that if we decide to go to another Balloon Fiesta, we'll FLY and rent a car. Never even got a chance to spend any quality time with CousinJIM. What happened was: We got to the field on Wednesday morning (early, like we thought we should). We'd parked in spectator parking and walked in to find L3 (where Jim and Graham were to take off). It was dark, and I lost one of my gloves on the way to L3. That majorly sucked, because those were my only gloves and a pair that my dad and Lucky had bought me one year. :-( I threw away the other one a few days into the Albuquerque trip, because one glove isn't any good without the other. CousinJIM had gloves, so I took a pair from his trailer. Time moved along and the crew got to work getting CousinJim's balloon ready for the air. Em went off to the concession area to have a smoke, because smoking isn't allowed on the field (due to the propane considerations). One thing led to another and Em got to talking to people, so when someone said, "You and your boyfriend can go with Robert on the chase", I had to say, "I don't know where Em IS!". So, we missed the whole CousinJIM experience and were assigned to Graham. Graham's "turn" was later, and I suppose that had something to do with how he only took ONE ride before we met him and put the balloon away. My previous experience at ballooning had Graham landing, taking on fresh passengers, going back up, landing again, taking on fresh passengers, etc. This time, Graham just did the up/down thing ONCE. Em was back by Graham's "turn", so he was able to help him get off and back. The basket and balloon are unloaded (from either a trailer like CousinJIM's or a van like Graham's) and the basket is "readied". There are all sorts of things that go in and on the basket. CousinJIM could give ya the details on that. The balloon is then laid out on the field and hooked up to the basket. Balloons are HUGE. Then, a fan is used to blow air into the balloon opening while it's laid out on the ground. Here's Em holding one side of the balloon opening while the fan does its work. You can see how it starts to expand. At the appropriate time (known only to the pilot), some fire is shot into the balloon from the basket propane tank and the balloon starts to want to stand upright. At that point, folks take the basket from a laying down position to a standing up position, more fire is shot into the balloon until it's pretty full of hot air, passengers load, more fire is shot into the balloon and woof...thereyago! Here's a shot of another balloon getting that shot of fire. The fire shots scare me when I'm in the balloon or on fan duty; I want to check my head to see if my hair is still there. :-) At dinner on Wednesday, Carlos suggested that Graham needed crew for Thursday's special shape ascension and Em and I volunteered before we learned that the special shape balloon couldn't take even one passenger. So, Em didn't get a balloon ride. He got to experience the "getting it up" and the "taking it down", though, so he has a little feel for what crewing a balloon is like. Here we are with Graham and Dingbat (the balloon) on Thursday: Crew not in the balloon "chase" the balloon. Graham didn't fly far, and landed in a parking lot somewhere near Fiesta Park. Nancy (of the Clutch Crew) drove the chase vehicle to where Graham landed. Here's a shot of him above us (a photo taken while driving in the van): He was fortunate enough to land in a fairly empty parking lot. After the rides are over, the balloon must be packed up and returned to the trailer or van. As Em said, "Takes a LONG time to get the balloon prepared for flight and a long time to get the balloon put away again." Time actually spent flying is sometimes minimal comparatively speaking. Can't say this was a GOOD vacation for us; it was an UNUSUAL vacation for us. We need to work out what went wrong before we attempt something like this again.

Warm watermelon, new digs, more trip news, and OPEN THREAD...how are y'all doin'?

Picked the first watermelon from my garden this past week. Cut it open and gave both Em and No. 1 a taste. No. 1 said, "It's WARM!" Gave Em a taste, mentioning how No. 1 said, "It's WARM!" He said, "It's WARM!" I said, "Does that seem unnatural to you?" He said, "Yes." So, we have a watermelon grown in Texas that's been sitting for months in a garden through a drought, picked during maybe the heat of the day, REALLY tasty, but it needs to be chilled before it's honored. I don't even know what to say about that. No. 2 moved into new digs this past week. Her dad took pictures of the apartment and surrounding area. Here are the pics I felt comfortable to post on the internet: I thought you'd like that second one, Diane, because hot water heaters and gas shutoff valves are in your immediate future, as well. Em (and his grandson) left this evening for Chicago. They went to attend a football game... Notre Dame, I think. They'll be back Monday and we leave Tuesday early for Albuquerque and the Balloon Fest. I'm the proud owner of a new LCD monitor now, so I can actually see photos again. I also bought a storage card for my digital camera so I can take more than 20 pics in Albuquerque. Bought the spices (finally) and even got new printer cartridges for the PC. It's looking like it may be to my advantage financially to go with a broadband server over the dialup which sucks majorly. I'm gonna wait until we return from Albuquerque to make a decision on that, but between the dedicated phone line and the dial-up cost, it MIGHT be cheaper. Just don't know if it'll be as reliable (as well as about 100 other questions I have about it). I'm feeling REALLY extravagant having purchased a bit more than I can afford in one month without cutting back on the grocery bill. Tell me how you do it, No. 2! Got "Handmaid's Tale" from the library today. It's a dead-tree book that I've heard about for a while now and it trumped the stuff Silly-O mentioned. I'm ALSO now into Sudoku puzzles. [Why DO I torture myself?]